O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Delayed IT refunds
Tax administration needs reforms
The Supreme Court on Friday justifiably called for action against the officers concerned while directing the Income Tax Department to pay a penal interest of 9 per cent to a company for delaying the refund of Rs 40 lakh for 17 years. This may be an extreme case, but is not an isolated one.

Hamas at the helm
Hopefully, it will give up violence
The victory of the Hamas, described as a terrorist organization by the US, the European Union and Israel, in the January 25 Palestinian elections has added a new dimension to the crisis in West Asia.

Wali Khan
He had the courage of conviction
It is said that nothing grows under a banyan tree. The same is believed to be true of a towering leader, whose progenies are generally no patch on his greatness. There are glorious exceptions though, and veteran politician and leader of Pakistan’s Awami National Party, Abdul Wali Khan, who died at a ripe age of 89 last Thursday, was one of them.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

The Iran vote

India’s freedom of action not for sale by S. Nihal Singh Intended or otherwise, US Ambassador David Mulford’s public warning over India’s vote on the Iran issue has reawakened the ghosts of the past.

N-proliferation can’t be ignored by K. Subrahmanyam India is in a difficult position in respect of the possible resolution that may come up before the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on February 2.

OPED

News analysis
Bal Thackeray stands rejected, diminished
by Shiv Kumar
As he stood up on stage in Mumbai last week to celebrate his 80th birthday, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray could not have missed the sprawling ruins his pet project has turned into. Alone, King Lear-like, the old man was left to fulminate at fate as those near and dear to him cleaved apart at the empire painstakingly built over 40 years.

Food giants target children
by Martin Hickman
Food companies have hijacked new technology such as the internet and text messaging to promote sugary and fatty food to children, a report on junk food’s “marketing tricks” claims.

Delhi Durbar
Delayed guard of honour
“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” Shakespeare wrote. Not quite, if one sees it in the context of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud. Sample this. On January 25 the King was to inspect a guard of honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan. There are specific timings for the guard of honour — 9 am in summer and 10 am in winter.

• Buta Singh’s exit

• HR Bhardwaj’s prediction

• Appointment of Governors

From the pages of

 

REFLECTIONS

EDITORIALS

Delayed IT refunds
Tax administration needs reforms

The Supreme Court on Friday justifiably called for action against the officers concerned while directing the Income Tax Department to pay a penal interest of 9 per cent to a company for delaying the refund of Rs 40 lakh for 17 years. This may be an extreme case, but is not an isolated one. The Public Accounts Committee report for 2005-06 has pulled up the IT Department for paying Rs 1,353 crore as interest to tax payers whose refunds were delayed. Obviously, unless the officers concerned are held accountable and forced to make good the avoidable loss to the exchequer, malfunctioning of the department would continue and the honest taxpayer would be made to suffer a financial loss for no fault of his.

There has been a perceptible improvement in the process of filing returns and getting refunds over the years with the simplification of the procedures, specially the introduction of the electronic clearing scheme, but much more needs to be done. At present the benefit of the electronic clearing scheme is available to the salaried taxpayers in a dozen cities only. This needs to be extended to other areas as also to other taxpayers. The electronic refund is not only much faster than the practice of issuing cheques, but also saves money, effort and time. It minimises, if not eliminates altogether, chances of fraud. Refunds sometime get delayed as cheques are lost in transit.

Shortly before a Union Budget, suggestions are invited by the Finance Minister to rationalise taxes and further simplify the rules. One of the suggestions finding favour with the government is to adjust refunds up to Rs 5,000 of salaried taxpayers against their future tax liability. This will reduce the workload of tax officials and also provide the government some cushion as refund money would remain in its kitty for a year. However, the employees would agree only if they too are given some compensation. The tax administration definitely needs more such reforms.

Hamas at the helm
Hopefully, it will give up violence

The victory of the Hamas, described as a terrorist organization by the US, the European Union and Israel, in the January 25 Palestinian elections has added a new dimension to the crisis in West Asia. The radical Islamic outfit stands for the destruction of Israel if the latter does not agree to withdraw from the Palestinian territories it has occupied since 1948. The Hamas, along with the Islamic Jihad, has been on the forefront in the intifadas (uprisings) against Israel, introducing suicide bombings into the conflict between the two sides. In such a situation, whether Israel will continue with the unilateral peace process it had started remains to be seen. Israel has already indicated that it will find it too difficult to deal with the new Palestinian rulers unless they renounce their avowed objective of eliminating Israel by any means possible. The US has already declared that “aid packages won’t go forward” without the Hamas coming out with a change in its policies.

The reality, however, is that the Hamas has captured power through a democratic process, defeating the Al-Fateh group of President Mehmoud Abbas. The extremist organization fought the elections by raising mainly domestic issues like corruption and growing unemployment. The Al-Fateh government had become very unpopular among the people because of widespread corruption. So, the Palestinian voters have given their mandate to the Hamas not for its capacity to carry out suicide bombings, but because of a comparatively cleaner record of its leaders.

Under the circumstances, non-cooperation with the new Palestinian administration will amount to not only dishonouring the will of the Palestinian people, but also indirectly siding with the corrupt. Any withdrawal of aid by the US, the EU (the largest aid-giver with a package of $612 million last year) and others may harden the attitude of an organization known for its extremist policies and postures. A liberal and sympathetic view of the changeover may force the Hamas to give up its destructive policies and take to dialogue and diplomacy for getting its grievances redressed. The Hamas leadership must be aware of the fact that it cannot come up to the expectations of the Palestinian public without the cooperation of the world community.

Wali Khan
He had the courage of conviction

It is said that nothing grows under a banyan tree. The same is believed to be true of a towering leader, whose progenies are generally no patch on his greatness. There are glorious exceptions though, and veteran politician and leader of Pakistan’s Awami National Party, Abdul Wali Khan, who died at a ripe age of 89 last Thursday, was one of them. He was the son of as tall a leader as Frontier Gandhi Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and yet became an undisputed leader in his own right because of the sterling personal qualities that he had. All his life he remained a major anti-establishment figure, which is not an easy proposition in a country like Pakistan. Perhaps he himself would not have remembered how many times he had been put behind bars. There were at least four assassination attempts as well, which could not do much to diminish his zeal for the welfare of his Pakhtoon people.

He was considered a part of the country’s liberal left but also entered into alliances with the right to become a coalition partner in the NWFP government repeatedly. It is another matter that he was viewed with deep suspicion by the civil and military establishments of the country and was robbed of power on flimsy pretexts. His fight continued regardless for close to half a century.

Having been a member of the All-India Congress Committee in 1947, he always had warm ties with India. This is one trait that he shared with his late father. Political compulsions were such that Delhi could not come to his help as much as he wanted. He had retired from active politics after his electoral defeat at the hands of Maulana Hassan Jan in the 1990 general elections but continued to dominate politics of the Frontier and kept his hold on the ANP through his wife Nasim Wali, a political activist in her own right. More than as a politician, he will be sorely missed as a social reformer and a symbol of democratic forces in a country known for dictatorial and military rule.

Thought for the day

Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise. — Alice Walker

ARTICLE

The Iran vote
India’s freedom of action not for sale
by S. Nihal Singh

Intended or otherwise, US Ambassador David Mulford’s public warning over India’s vote on the Iran issue has reawakened the ghosts of the past, bringing into focus the one issue that was responsible for the unhappy state of relations between the two countries since Indian Independence. Unlike the former Soviet Union, Washington had persistently denied India autonomy in policy-making in its effort to sign up New Delhi to fight its battles in the Cold War.

On the strength of the proposed civilian nuclear agreement, the United States is now asking India to support its policies in West Asia not only in relation to Iran’s nuclear programme but also in its behaviour towards Syria. In the latter case, Washington wants India to pull out of the joint India-China oil venture. Apart from the nuclear issue relating to Iran, the US has publicly opposed the projected Iran-India pipeline.

Flowing from the Indo-US agreement of July 18 last year, cooperation in the civilian nuclear field has been mired in how the civilian and military nuclear programmes are to be separated, the fast breeder reactors being a major bone of contention. As US pressure on India mounts on endorsing its entire flawed approach to West Asia, New Delhi must reconsider the basis of its approach to America. The question is as stark as it is simple. Is the cost of nuclear cooperation with the US worth the candle?

The concept of non-alignment had lost its relevance with the end of the Cold War even as it had been considerably weakened by the dilution of the criteria for membership. But Jawaharlal Nehru conceived of it both as a philosophical idea and as a realpolitik measure, to give a then militarily and economically weak India an enviable measure of autonomy in decision-making. The fact that he did not side with the US in the Cold War was to retain this autonomy while Pakistan was willing to do so as a hedge against India.

India’s ability to maintain freedom of choice is as valid today as it was in Nehru’s time, and whether the US committed a faux pas or not, the message Washington is sending out is loud and clear. If New Delhi wishes to avail of its offer of civilian nuclear cooperation, it would lose its capacity for taking independent action in crucial areas of international policy. Misgivings in the Indian nuclear establishment on the wisdom of putting fast breeder reactors under international safeguards, among other issues, are well known and need a separate debate.

A set of unique circumstances makes India’s tasks harder. The country is on the cusp of an upward trajectory in its economic and technological development. It needs US benevolence, if not active support, in fulfilling its promise, given America’s technological prowess, the size of its market and its dominance over international financial institutions. Indeed, American power has been amplified by its hyperpower status, which it is employing to reorder the world in line with its interests. The ranks of the European Union, which offers some resistance to Washington, are divided and China is the only other significant political adversary. Russia’s ability to assert its role lies in the future.

By all accounts, India has already rejected the American request to pull out of the Syria deal while it will now find it next to impossible to side with the US on Iran, given the maladroit intervention by the US Ambassador and the storm it has raised. If the US insists on demanding an unacceptable price for nuclear proliferation, New Delhi’s delicate task will be to rescue the larger relationship with the US from a failed nuclear cooperation agreement. India becoming a camp follower of the US is not an option because it will go against the Indian grain and the essence of Indian nationhood.

President George W. Bush’s planned visit to India early in March is a deadline of sorts in redefining the relationship with America. Even US officials have expressed doubts on the two sides agreeing to a nuclear deal by then. If no such deal is possible on acceptable terms, it might be better to let it wither away in order to concentrate on other areas of cooperation. They are many and diverse ranging from economy and trade to technology and education and there is no reason why the increasingly influential lobby of Indian-Americans should not be pressed into service.

Perhaps the Bush administration is testing India to ascertain how far it can push New Delhi after dangling the carrot of helping make it a major power in the 21st century. True, elite Indian opinion is split on the degree of closeness it should aspire to in its relationship with the US, but few would vote for a subservient role if the question is posed as the US administration seems to be posing it: signing a nuclear deal means an unwritten commitment to support all its policies.

India needs all its reserves of diplomacy and subtlety to negotiate the next stretch. The US can be left in no doubt that, whatever the temptations offered, India’s exercise of its independent freedom of action is not for sale. At the same time, New Delhi does not want to humiliate the US. The two countries should agree to disagree on West Asia. India was against the American invasion of Iraq as it is against taking a hard line on Iran or isolating Syria.

It is early days yet to determine how the nuclear deal will play out — the American Congress is as determined as President George W. Bush to make India toe its line on Iran. But Mr Mulford has helped in building the critical mass towards rejecting American terms for the nuclear deal. The US Ambassador has the distinction of provoking even Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee to join the opposition on this deal and he is in the company of not merely the Communists but also former Prime Minister V.P. Singh and the Samajwadi Party. Perhaps it is just as well that American expectations and India’s limits of tolerance have collided sooner, rather than later.

The Iran vote
N-proliferation can’t be ignored
by K. Subrahmanyam

India is in a difficult position in respect of the possible resolution that may come up before the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on February 2. On the one side, there are veiled and not-so-veiled threats from various quarters in the US that if India does not vote along with the resolution of EU-3 (Germany, France and the UK) supported by the US, the American Congressmen will get offended and may not vote for the Congressional resolution extending to India exceptionalisation from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and related domestic laws.

On the other side, there is the blackmail of Iran, China and Pakistan through various ideological and communal channels that the stability of the UPA government and the future prospects of the Muslim vote would be adversely affected if India will not abstain from voting on the treaty. The Prime Minister has asserted that the issue will be decided on the basis of Indian national interests, which is how it should be.

What is India’s national interest? The Prime Minister has made it clear that it is not in India’s national interest if one more nuclear-weapon state were to emerge in our neighbourhood. It is not in India’s national interest that the 16-year-long clandestine Iranian proliferation issue is left unresolved, without the IAEA not being able to certify that Iran is fully purged of clandestine nuclear sites, nuclear equipment and nuclear processes which contravene IAEA regulations.

It is not in India’s national interest to alienate Saudi Arabia and other Islamic states of West Asia which feel threatened by the Iranian proliferation. In fact, the majority Muslim opinion in India — the Sunni opinion — will be more influenced by the Saudi Sunni opinion than by Shia opinion. Even General Musharraf, whose country proliferated to Iran, has declared in Davos that Pakistan is against Iranian proliferation.

Needless to say that India will be alienating the majority of the Western countries and members of the Board of Governors of the IAEA if it abstains. It will also prove itself a banana republic by contradicting its earlier stand on the September 24 resolution. Having tasted blood, if India reverses its vote, the various political parties in the country will step up their blackmail of the UPA on different other issues.

Therefore, India should think through this issue independently, from the point of view of its national interest. It is not clear what kind of resolution would come up before the IAEA on February 2. While the EU-3 countries appear to be very eager to bring in a resolution which will refer the issue to the Security Council, Dr El Baradei, Director-General of the IAEA, has made it clear that the agency will be able to table its latest report on Iran’s compliance on the IAEA’s latest queries only in the first week of March and his advice to EU-3 is to defer the consideration of the issue till then.

This is a very sensible advice. The focus of the EU-3 countries is on Iran having broken its earlier understanding with them on not starting the enrichment process within Iran. Iran has a right to carry out enrichment as per the provisions of the NPT. Therefore, Iran’s going back on its earlier commitment is not a violation of the IAEA regulations justifying a referral to the Security Council. But the Iranian clandestine proliferation with the help of Dr A.Q. Khan, which was the subject matter of the September 24 resolution, is the appropriate subject for referral.

Therefore, India should inform others well in advance that unless the issue to be brought up before the IAEA is a continuation of the September 24 resolution and not the political dispute between the EU-3 countries and Iran on uranium enrichment, India will not participate in voting. Not participating in voting is different from abstaining.

India should insist on a clear division between the unresolved issue of Iranian proliferation of the last 16 years and the political dispute on enrichment. While India will vote for a referral to the Security Council on the former issue in continuation of the vote of September 24, 2005, it cannot agree to the referral to the Security Council on the basis of the enrichment dispute. Therefore, India should advise the IAEA Board of Governors to wait for the new report of the Director-General in the first week of March.

India, in its own national interest, should also move an amendment to any referral resolution that nations where the IAEA has found the Iranian proliferation of 16 years originated should be asked to cooperate with the IAEA in its investigation. This is their obligation as members of the IAEA. Any reluctance on their part to cooperate with the IAEA should lead to consideration of their possible inclusion in the referral to the Security Council. Otherwise only to refer the beneficiary of the proliferation transaction to the Security Council overlooking the continuing proliferation activity of the originators is unfair and reflective of unjustified bias.

Such a stand by India cannot be considered to be the result of pressure from the US or blackmail by Iran, Pakistan and China and their lobbies in India. It would also reflect wholly the Indian national interest. If the West refuses to go along with the suggested Indian amendment, or if there is no clear linkage with the Iranian proliferation issue as pointed out in the September 24 resolution, or the present resolution confines itself only to the enrichment issue without waiting for the report of the IAEA’s Director-General in March, 2006, India would be fully justified in non-participation in voting after fully explaining its stand.

Our strong theme should be that India is not against the referral of Iran to the Security Council for its proliferation activity provided it is not a one-sided biased resolution which seeks to protect the proliferators. This position should be explained in advance to the Western countries as well as other members of the Board of Governors so that they have time to reflect on the desirability of postponing the deliberations to March when the IAEA Director-General’s full report on proliferation will be available.

According to the present indications, Russia may come out with a compromise if Iran does not accept its proposal of having enrichment in Russian territory, that would permit the West to make the referral to the Security Council but restricting it to a debate in the Council without a resolution. Such a compromise will not focus attention on the proliferators and is, therefore, not fully in consonance with the Indian national interest.

Secondly, the Indian stand should also be fully publicised in the US, and the focus should be on the bias in any resolution which lets off the proliferators while concentrating only on Iran. The Iranian issue also brings out clearly that export controls in European countries are extremely lax and led to proliferation to Pakistan, Iran and Libya. Therefore, the inspection procedures and the supervision of export controls in European countries also need to be tightened up and the issue deserves to be fully debated in the IAEA. This could also feature in our proposed amendment.

OPED

News analysis
Bal Thackeray stands rejected, diminished
by Shiv Kumar

As he stood up on stage in Mumbai last week to celebrate his 80th birthday, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray could not have missed the sprawling ruins his pet project has turned into.

Alone, King Lear-like, the old man was left to fulminate at fate as those near and dear to him cleaved apart at the empire painstakingly built over 40 years.

The departure of long-time proteges like Narayan Rane could have been just an irritant to Thackeray, had not the nephew he doted on broken away as well.

“Ties born out of ambition seem to be stronger than blood relationships,” he rued at what he saw as the ultimate betrayal by Raj Thackeray.

What really hurt the self-styled Hindu Hriday Samrat is his complete rejection by the masses. In November, Thackeray could not even save the Shiv Sena candidate’s deposit in the face of Rane’s aggression in the Malvan assembly constituency.

A repeat followed in the recent byelection when the Shiv Sena candidate from Vengurla lost his deposit to the defector-turned-Congress victor Shankar Kambli.

Two more defectors from the Shiv Sena are contesting as Congress candidates in the byelections next month. Keenly watched will the battle at Naigaum in Central Mumbai, for long considered to be a Shiv Sena stronghold. But Congress candidate Kalidas Kolambkar, who crossed over from the Shiv Sena, is proving to be a tough nut.

For Narayan Rane, who is dismantling the Shiv Sena brick by brick, the eclipse of the Thackerays is only a matter of time. “I am now concentrating on Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra,” says Rane, who made and broke the Shiv Sena in the Konkan region.

The Shiv Sena’s tally in the current assembly has fallen from 63 to 57. With a further exodus in its ranks likely next month, the party is likely to be upstaged by its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

With 54 MLAs in the House of 288, the BJP is keen on wresting the post of Leader of the Opposition from the Shiv Sena in the coming months.

While Narayan Rane takes away its leaders, Raj Thackeray is wooing the Shiv Sena cadres in large numbers. A look-alike of his uncle, Raj is weaving dreams of a new Maharashtra in the countryside and drawing a large audience. The regional card mothballed in recent times by the elder Thackeray is proving to be a trump for his nephew.

Rebellious office-bearers of the Shiv Sena, young unaffiliated professionals and workers from across the political spectrum are flocking towards Raj as he undertakes a whirlwind tour of Maharashtra.

His speeches against globalisation and liberalisation, which leave the average Marathi unable to compete with the English-educated elite, is striking a chord. Not surprisingly, applications are pouring in for the yet unnamed political party to be floated by Raj Thackeray.

Isolated at home and outside, Bal Thackeray cannot help but bond closer to his son and heir, Uddhav, even as the chorus against the planned succession gets shriller.

The elder Thackeray drifted further away by chiding Raj for using his picture and the Shiv Sena logo in his publicity campaigns. The young rebel shot back by pulling out the old man’s pictures, but subtly told his uncle that the image of Shivaji Maharaj was nobody’s private property.

Biding his time to administer the coup de grace against Thackeray is Rane himself. With a section of the Congress backing him, Rane is quietly positioning himself for the top job in Maharashtra.

Opponents of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh are eagerly promoting Rane ostensibly for his ability to finish off the Sena for good.

Not surprisingly, Shiv Sena leaders are quietly making overtures to Rane so that they are not targetted for their closeness to the Thackerays when the avenger rides in on an angry charger.

With none to shield his son, Bal Thackeray has now threatened to don the war paint once again in the autumn of his life. And even his admirers have begun to beseech the supremo to take a bow before the lights fade out.

Food giants target children
by Martin Hickman

Food companies have hijacked new technology such as the internet and text messaging to promote sugary and fatty food to children, a report on junk food’s “marketing tricks” claims.

An investigation by the consumers’ association Which? found sophisticated use of mobile phones and computers were among 40 “underhand” ways of advertising unhealthy snacks and meals to children.

Aware that 75 per cent of teenagers have home access to the internet, Pepsi sponsored a computer game on a pet website and Masterfoods created a breezy Starburst site carrying showbusiness news. Cadbury received five million responses to a text-messaging competition to win £1m.

Other, low-tech promotions used by firms included star endorsements, games on packaging and the selling of a McDonald’s children’s play set containing plastic burgers and chicken nuggets.

Publication of the report, Child Catchers, comes amid rising concern about the level of obesity in children. In England, one in seven children under the age of 11 and one in five aged between 12 and 16 are obese, putting them at future risk of diabetes, cancer and heart disease. A consumer backlash has begun in the past 12 months with millions of pounds wiped off sales of the least healthy chocolate bars and crisps.

Britain’s biggest crisp-maker Walkers, which lost £30m sales last year, announced yesterday that it is cutting saturated fat in its products by up to 70 per cent. The Pepsi subsidiary will launch a £20m advertising campaign fronted by Gary Lineker.

Television advertising is a controversial issue for the manufacturers. The regulator Ofcom is currently considering banning junk food adverts from children’s television — a move that is supported by 70 per cent of parents.

In its report, Which? found evidence that food marketing aimed at children had become more “inventive and integrated” in the internet age.

In an attempt to capture the Net-savvy generation of teenagers, food companies have turned to sponsoring internet games. Visitors to the neopets site, for example, earn points for the health of a virtual pet by taking part in branded contests.

In the Pepsi World game — now withdrawn from the site — a character raced to serve “thirsty” customers “delicious” Pepsi in a Pepsi palace. Nestlé’s Lion bars promoted a competition based on The Incredibles film with the prize of a visit to Pixar’s animation studios, that could be entered online or by text message.

A competition to win a mobile phone — a popular prize with adolescents — was promoted by Fanta. One product website, mouthwateringtv.co.uk, which is advertised regularly in teen magazines, carries showbiz gossip and competitions. It also has “plenty of Starburst mentions” — a reference to sweets made by the website’s owner, Masterfoods. Competitions generate e-mail addresses for future promotions.

Among the less technological methods are the use of puzzles, pictures and games. A game inside a packet of Cadbury Mini Rolls — 46g of sugar per 100g — encouraged children to use the mini rolls as a trading token to get out of doing chores, such as “eating your greens”.

Product placement was still popular in films, such as Burger King in Scooby Doo II and Coca-Cola in Madagascar.

— The Independent

Delhi Durbar
Delayed guard of honour

“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” Shakespeare wrote. Not quite, if one sees it in the context of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud.

Sample this. On January 25 the King was to inspect a guard of honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan. There are specific timings for the guard of honour — 9 am in summer and 10 am in winter.

All VIPs were present for the big event well before time. But the King turned up only at 11.45 am. It was probably the first time when the ceremony was held so late.

Buta Singh’s exit

After the Supreme Court judgement about the unconstitutional dissolution of the Bihar assembly last year, it had become clear that the continuance of Buta Singh as the Governor of Bihar was untenable. The effort was to ensure that the exit was as honourable as possible.

As the constitutional head of a state, Buta Singh went through the motions of taking the salute at the R-Day parade in Patna and immediately thereafter faxed his resignation to Rashtrapati Bhavan. The resignation was accepted.

With fall guy Buta Singh out of the way, the Opposition, particularly the BJP, is sharpening its attack on Manmohan Singh, emphasising that the Prime Minister cannot absolve himself of the moral responsibility of recommending dissolution of the Bihar assembly.

HR Bhardwaj’s prediction

As the UPA government is trying to wriggle out of the Bihar fiasco, a hot topic of debate in the apex court Bar is: how did Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj have prior knowledge that the verdict would be by a 3-2 majority even before the brief order was passed by the court on October 7 last?

The Bar members have raised questions about propriety of the Law Minister boasting that the judgement would be a split verdict before it was actually pronounced.

Appointment of Governors

After the Supreme Court judgement on Bihar, the role and appointment of Governors has once again come into sharp focus. The Left is demanding a wider debate on the issue.

It is only on such occasions that the Sarkaria Commission report on Centre-State relations and the appointment of Governors is talked about.

However, those in power pay scant regard to the Sarkaria Commission recommendations which have been accepted in toto by all concerned but remain to be implemented.

The Congress has faced one embarrassment after another because of the action of some of the constitutional heads handpicked by it.

In Karnataka Governor T.N. Chaturvedi, an appointee of the previous BJP-led NDA government, followed by the rule book despite the saffron brigade’s demand that he should dismiss the Congress-led coalition government.

Contributed by Rajeev Sharma, S. Satyanaryanan, S.S. Negi and R. Suryamurthy.

From the pages of

March 18, 1924

The Bengal pact

Mr C.R. Das has undoubtedly scored a victory, but it is difficult to say if he has really improved his position. The majority by which his amendment adjourning further consideration of the resolution in the Bengal Council demanding that 80 per cent of the new appointments in Government Service be given to Mahomedans was carried was very substantial, and was obviously both a personal triumph for himself and a triumph for his party. It is a safe assumption that Mr Das did succeed in getting the majority of his Mussalman followers to support his proposal, which at once proves the strength of his hold upon his party as a whole. It is, indeed, a matter of grave doubt if even a single Mussalman member could be found in the Punjab Council who would have the courage to stand up in his place and say, as at least one Mussalman member of the Bengal Council did, that the resolution was “fraught with great danger and grave consequences.”

REFLECTIONS

Four Noble Truths: Suffering exists; Suffering arises from attachment to desires; Suffering ceases when attachment to desires ceases; Freedom from suffering is possible by practising the Eightfold path.

— The Buddha

That system alone is worth pursuing which sings the praises of God. In it does rest your true glory.

— Guru Nanak

Death spreads the karmic net like a fisherman snaring fish.

— Kabir